Mermaid Ken
by SugarSpiral
Summary: Ken and Kari go on a date to the beach... where they see a strange, yet beautiful *something*. A little bit random. challengefic from smile-in-ur-sleep.


**Mermaid Ken.  
**_A Digi-Challenge from smile-in-ur-sleep.  
_By SugarSpiral.

-

_Challenge details can be found at the __end of this fic, as otherwise it gives too much away...  
And (I apologise in advance for shameless overuse of brackets.)  
Also, the style in which I've written this is very, very fractured. So I apologise for that too._

-

**Disclaimer::** I, _SugarSpiral,_ am personally in love with Mermaid Ken [based on _nina-neko's_ drawing of pure beauty, which in turn was based on _emotionless-robot's_ slightly wacky and disturbing dream- all of which was discovered at the Digi Challenge Forum!], and I am choosing to use this idea, written by Jazzeh* _[smile-in-ur-sleep]_ to manipulate him in my own way. I do not own Digimon, for if I did, Mermaid Ken would be real and not simply in this written work. Ho hum.

-

It was a beautiful day in Odaiba, Japan. All was calm. The wind was calm, the sea was calm, even the Davis was calm… (Truth be told, he was asleep. But he was having calm dreams…). Yes. Everything was calm. Everything, unless of course you counted the young blue-nette who was currently vibrating with nerves.

Ken didn't even have the slightest inkling as to how it happened. One minute, he was happily steamrollering through complex algebra problems, the next; he was here. Quaking with apprehension as the minutes ticked by, closer to the arranged time. It was pointless, he knew, to glance at his watch every 13.7 seconds. One eyebrow raised, he noted that the fact he _knew_ he was doing so, was also quite pointless. Maybe this entire affair was pointless. He grimaced. _Affair._ Wrong word.

It's not that he didn't **like** Kari. She was… Kari. She was intelligent, caring, and sweet. She was also quite pretty, something Ken had noticed a few weeks ago, watching one of her dance performances on youtube. (Davis had recently discovered a new ambition: to become movie director. _The Greatest Movie Director of All Time!_ Ken had to smile. His best friends delusional tendencies were always amusing).

No, it wasn't Kari at all. He tugged at his scarf. His feeling of unease was probably something to do with the fact his off again/on again/off again/_you get the picture _relationship with Yolei had been drawn to a complete stop exactly one month ago, this very day. He closed his eyes. Ken wasn't heartbroken. On the contrary, he was worried because he didn't feel… well, anything. When people had discovered Inoue Yolei had dumped Ichijoji Ken, there had been social uproar. But when people tried to sympathise with him…

-

_So, how long were you guys going out? _

_**About a year.**_

_Seriously? And she just broke up with you? Without a reason? But... but you're much better looking than her! You must feel terrible. _

_**Um… Not really.**_

-

It was a little like being asked what you had for breakfast, and someone trying to relate to that with that...

-

_So, what'd you have for breakfast today? _

_**Wheaty-Chomps. I always have Wheaty-Chomps on a Thursday morning.  
**_

_Aah, Wheaty-Chomps, my first true love… I remember back in the summer of '47, when I discovered one hidden beneath a rather distinguished looking Swedish armchair... Tragic m'boy. Simply tragic._

_**Um... I'm going to walk over there now. Don't follow me. You scare me.**_

_**-  
**_

Again, it wasn't Kari's fault. She didn't know today was the day. (Ken couldn't even be bothered to capitalize it, _that _was how little it meant to him). _Why am I always early for these things..? _Still, he couldn't help anxiously glancing at his outfit whist he waited for Kari to show up. The dark red wool of his scarf contrasted starkly with his black sweater. His jeans were a dark grey, and his shoes shiny. Was he overdressed? Under dressed? Was his hair straight? (Sometimes he had a kink in his fringe. Not a huge kink. Most people barely noticed. But it was still a kink, and the way it flicked into the corner of his vision annoyed Ken to the point of frustration so immense, he'd occasionally stomp with displeasure). Should he have brought her a gift? A jacket, in case she got cold? Perhaps it wasn't really a _date._

Of course, he could just be reading too deeply into this. And what, exactly, was this?

-

_"Ken! Phone dear!"_

_His pencil dropped from his hand in surprise, the lead striking right through one of his perfect sums. Sighing, he stood up and walked over to the stand. _Davis probably wants to talk about the whole Yolei thing some more…urgh. _But it wasn't Yolei. It was, in fact, the last person he'd expect a phone call from. _

_"Ken…?" Kari's voice was soft, even across the fuzzy connection. "Um… are you busy?"_

-

After the initial surprise, Ken had actually been quite keen to go out with Kari. But how, oh how he regretted his parting words…

_"Sure Kari, it's a date."_

It's a date. It's a _date? _A **_date?! _**Ken kicked himself, literally. He glanced at the back of his trousers to make sure there were no dust stains, and when he looked up again… Kari had materialized out of no where. And was she… blushing?

"H-hi… Ken." Oh goodness, she was even stuttering. (Ken made a mental note to wipe the term "it's a date" from his collective memory. In fact, he made a New Years Resolution up on the spot. _Never use the word **d-a-t-e **again. On punishment of… stamping on the big toe_. Desperate times call for desperate measures.)

It was another minute before Ken realised, he hadn't replied. Blushing a blush so red, it was almost purple _(what?) _he stuttered out a greeting and held out his hand.

_A handshake? Since when has meeting a mutual friendship needed… a **handshake?**_

However, to his endless relief, Kari smiled shyly. And giggled. And that's when Ken realised she was hiding something behind her back.

-

_The innocent little smile suddenly turned into a menacing grin. With panther-like speed, Kari whipped out a gun and shot Ken slap-bang in the gut._

_"That's for using the word "**date**", slimeball." _

_A meek gurgle of apology was the best the poor boy could manage as she walked off, leaving him to bleed out in the street…_

-

...Ken definitely needed more sleep. It was the best he could do to concentrate on getting the image of Kari's legs out of his head (_I'm not being a perv_, he reminded himself, _it was all I could see when she walked away. And even if I was, it's her fault for shooting me…_). Once his mind was clear, to his dismay he found that, indeed, he _was _staring at Kari's legs.

"So... Do you like them?" Ken blushed, amazed Kari could hear his thoughts. Then again, there was a good possibility he was drooling... She _did_ have nice legs.

Tentatively, he voiced his fears "Do I like... what?" He blushed again, noting he had no idea how long he'd been daydreaming for. Kari'd probably said something that had nothing to do with her lovely legs and Ken was just making an arse of himself... _Speaking of ars- _Wait.

_Her lovely legs? _Ken was about to smack himself in the forehead when Kari spoke.

"Sorry, bad choice of words. I guess I should've said '_Would_ you like them?'" At Ken's blank expression, she elaborated "The cookies?" Without waiting for an answer, she threw a small white box towards him. Being a soccer whizz that he was had the bonus of excellent reaction times, and Ken caught it before he'd even realised the inevitable.

_Oh, so it's not a gun..._

_"_Th...anks." And, guess what, he was blushing again. At this rate, Kari was going to think he had some sort of rare disease. "Um... I haven't got you anything..." She laughed at that. (At him?)

"I didn't expect you to. Like I said, I was baking this morning anyway when I heard about it..." Her delicate eyebrows suddenly bunched together with concern. "You... don't mind coming with me, do you? I know it's silly, but even when I was a little girl I loved the idea of mermaids..." To his confusion, Ken found the sight of Kari upset strangely... upsetting. He growled at his own inarticulacy, but it was the only word for it. He wasn't distraught or uncomfortable or saddened, he was just... upset. He remembered the fridge magnet his mother had given him on New Year. **If you see someone without a smile, give them one of yours.**

(To his horror, this train of thought lead to the slightly less tasteful bookmark his father had given him: **I bet living in a nudist colony takes all the fun out of Halloween.** He really didn't need to be thinking about naked Kar- naked _people_ right now. Of course, that wasn't to say that Kari would look bad naked but- _no, stop Ken. Just stop. Stop and smile like the fridge magnet said to_).

He stopped. He smiled. She grinned. And then she grabbed his hand and pulled him in the direction of the beach.

-

It wasn't like Ken hadn't held anyone's hand before. To be honest, Yolei had never let go (not even in her sleep). And that one time he and Davis had decided to stay up all night and watch Creepy Gory Things That Go Bump In The Night... They'd both been terrified. (It wasn't a _homosexaul_ thing. It was just a _comfort_ thing.) But there was something different about holding Kari's. It was quite small_ (much smaller than Dav-Yolei's)_, but strong enough to make him feel comfortable holding it. It was nice how her fingers was slim enough to slip through his, yet long enough to interlink with his.

Walking with her was fun, not only because she kept getting distracted mid-conversation (one time they had been talking about nutmeg and cookies when she'd rushed back a couple of steps to pick something off the ground. When questioned about it, she blushed in the cutest, most feminine of manners and admitted to have seeing a pretty stone. "_If I hadn't picked it up, I would've been awake _all night_ thinking about it_"). And to think, he'd been worrying about this... date.

True to his word, he stamped on his big toe. The tricky part was making it look like an accident so Kari didn't think he was completely crazy. Though it probably wouldn't have mattered, considering what happened when they reached the beach.

"Are you insane..?" He voiced it in the most polite of tones, but still her face dropped slightly. Something in his chest panged, and he tried to make up as quickly as possible. Anything to make her smile. "But Kari... I don't have a swimsuit"

"It's called skinny dipping, Ken." The bluenette felt his skin blanch of all colour. Luckily, before he passed out due to lack of oxygen, Kari burst out laughing. She'd neveer had a very strong poker face. "Just kidding. We just have to walk along the beach a little way, so we can see the Clusters."

Hand in hand, they began to walk along the shoreline. It was really very cold out here, without any shelter from buildings or trees, and in the end Ken wrapped his scarf around Kari's neck. Just as he stopped to pull his collar up and protect his bare throat, Kari ran off. With as much dignity as possible, Ken pelted after her... They were both breathless by the time he caught up.

"Ken... look..." Kari was pointing out to see, her eyes alight with wonderment. Ken followed her gaze out and... he rubbed his eyes. And pinched his arm. And stepped on his toe. _Nope, not daydreaming again... he's for real? _"He's beautiful..." She breathed.

There, out on the rock clusters, was a figure of ethereal beauty. His hair was long, a shade of black so vibrant it was almost blue... _Bluenette. _He was too far away to determine his eye colour, but they were narrow... and yet soft. He had a small (but not dispreportionate) nose, and full lips. All perfectly balanced on his heartshaped face. The chest and arms was toned, but the muscles were not overbearingly large. His tail and fins was a glorious sky blue. (And Ken appreciated this in a very non-gay manner. Heck, beauty was beauty).

Whilst Ken was rendered speechless by the sight, Kari most certainly wasn't. She called out to the figure, but as soon as he caught sight of the two of them, he dived back under the whirling currents of the ocean.

-

Kari agreed to let Ken walk her home. He couldn't possibly let her go on her own, she was practically delirious. (Seriously. All the way back, she wouldn't be quiet about the mer- _the mirage. _Annoyingly enough, she'd seemed to get it into her head the the mirage looked like.. well... Ken. _"All hail Mermaid Ken!" she had declared. __"Kari, I'm Ken, that's not me." "But he's so beautiful!" "But I'm better!"_ It was only afterwards Ken realised... she'd called him beautiful.)

-

A week later, Ken got another unexpected call. This time, he was pretty sure he knew who it was... his heart sped up a little. It had been generally accepted that he and Kari were now "An Item". So it was no surprise when his mother called for him to recive his call.

"Kari?"

"Hi Ken..." He froze. She sounded serious.

"What's up..?" He heard the static as she took a deep breath on the other end of the line.

"Ken, don't take this the wrong way... It's been great. I've had _the best_ week. Your a great guy. But I... I can't do this."

Ken couldn't believe what he was hearing. "We're breaking up..?"

"It's not really you..." He cut her off there.

"It's me? Or rather… it's you?" How soul-crushingly cliché. Yolei had used the very same lines on him not too long ago.

Strangely, she sounded confused. "No… It's not like that Ken... It's just…

"It's just what Kari?"

"Ken... I don't know if you've noticed, but I have... and I can't deal with it."

Now he was really confused. He waited in silence for her to continue.

"Ken... We have the same hair. It'd never work. "

_[Beep]. _The dial tone announced the obvious- she had hung up.

.

For a moment, Ken was struck dumb.

_Well,_ he thought. _At least it's original…_

_-_

_There you have it. Um... I dunno if I like it or not. And you can be sure Alyss' will knock the **spots** off it._

_-_

**Title::** Our Lord, Merken. (Changed to simply _Mermaid Ken_ for my one, as emotionless-robot is writing one too).  
**Main Characters::** Hikari, Ken. [do whatever for the names]  
**Location::** The beach [near an ocean, thanks!]  
**Phrase(s)::** "All hail Mermaid Ken!" "Kari, I'm Ken, that's not me." "But he's so beautiful!" "But I'm better!"

**Brief::** The mythical Mermaid Lord has been rumored to be living on the shorelines of Japan. As Kari and Ken are visiting the beach on a date, they see the beautiful figure. But he seems to look a lot like someone...


End file.
